For most of us, the phrase “government bureaucracy” calls to mind a mountain of paperwork. Last week, the Supreme Court heard a case concerning one of the major sources of such paperwork: the National Environmental Policy Act. Although the law’s purpose is laudable, the court’s interpretation threatens to render an already taxing process totally unworkable.

The specific dispute in the case is over a federal agency’s approval of the construction of 88 miles of rail in rural Utah, a project supported by the state, local communities, and tribes. Several environmental litigation groups, however, oppose the project. They sued, of course, arguing that the agency cannot approve the private project without first exhaustively analyzing the risk of a train accident in Colorado, air pollution in the Gulf Coast, and global climate change.